I've been using the copy feature, but it is becoming tedious. I really need the recurring task option. We have been using Trello for my kids' chores. Each kid has several daily chores, and to copy each day every day... Trello doesn't have recurring tasks on its development board, so I may be looking for a new solution. We tried in earnest!
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DebbieDec 4 '12 at 14:43

@Debbie Did you find a solution other than trello?
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GETahMay 2 '14 at 7:04

8 Answers
8

It is very simple but very powerful, you can even dynamically insert the day of week or time into the card (it doesn't have to be static content). Of course, you can also make this a daily or weekly task, you call!

We have a specific board where all the cards are "recurring". No need to create a card for every occurrence of a task, just re-use the same cards!

Our board has lists for Daily, Weekly, Monthly/Quarterly, Once and Completed/Retired task lists. Some cards have the day in the title (Tue: Clean Desk) as a reminder of when it should happen. We never copy cards for the next day/week, we just update the cards' activity and Due date.

When someone "completes" a task they simply change the Due Date and optionally enter an activity comment. It works great as soon as you figure out how to maintain it.

Example: We have one card that includes 5 steps (a checklist) to be completed during the week. As each checklist item is checked off, the card proceeds. The last item in the checklist is "Reset Card and Change Due Date". So if the Due date is Friday, Items 1 - 4 get checked during the week. When all items are complete we UNCHECK the check boxes and change the due date to the Next due date. Trello keeps track of these changes so you can always go back and see history in the activity comments.

Zapier has access to the Trello API. IFTTT has access to a calendar. Both have access to Google Drive.

Create an event that adds a Google Drive document once per month in IFTTT. I've done this step for you, if you want to use my recipe: https://ifttt.com/recipes/68810

Use the new triggered file in Google Drive as the event for a new Trello Card in Zapier. Zapier can filter results from the created Google Drive documents, but it does not yet appear to have the ability to copy a previous card, so you'll be creating your checklists from scratch.

This automates some of your actions, but it doesn't get you all of the way there.

The method using Zapier is really easy to use. But in the free version of Zapier you can use maximum 5 zaps (i.e. 5 reoccuring cards). I needed at least 10 zaps and because I'm a poor student I don't have the money for the premium account.

So I starting looking for a method using IFTTT. IFTT doesn't have a Trello channel, but there's still a easy way to create reoccuring cards: Use the Trigger "DATE & TIME" & the Action "GMAIL". You can schedule gmail to send an email with which you create a trello card. It is possible on a daily, hourly, weekly, monthly, yearly basis.
If you don't know how to create a card via mail, look here: http://help.trello.com/customer/portal/articles/1216141-creating-cards-by-email#formattingTips

I have created a zap in Zapier that works like a charm - at least for my scenario.

The task in Zapier creates a new card with the same content as a previous card. The trigger is: When a Card is moved to the "Done" list on my board AND the description field contains the word "Recurring" the zap is triggered. All fields are copied from the old card but the due date is created using a combination of Zapier's named variables and the adjust time feature.

In the description field of the cards I want to recur I write "Recurring(21)" where the number is the number of days from the data the previous card has been moved to the "Done" list. In the Zap I write

You can use google calendar to create a monthly event (I'd recommend creating a new calendar just for recurring trello tasks by going to "My calendar" -> "Create new calendar" on the left-hand side of the web interface). Then setup an email reminder for that event and you'll get notified once a month per email. Once you have done that, setup your email client to automatically forward the reminder email to your trello board. Under gmail you would do that by creating a filter.

As explained here, you can find out the email address for your trello board under Email Settings… in the Settings section in the trello sidebar.

The only problem with this setup is that google calendar emails have a subject line with the following format:

Reminder: event-name @ date-string (calendar-name)

Since trello uses the subject line of incoming emails to create new cards, the title of the new cards will not only include the event-name, but the full subject line.